Jimmy Carter funeral live updates: 39th president’s remains head to Georgia for burial next to wife Rosalynn

President Biden honored Carter’s ‘character’ during his eulogy as Trump, Obama and other former presidents attended the service at the Washington National Cathedral

Jimmy Carter, former US president, dies aged 100

The funeral of President Jimmy Carter has come to a close.

The remains of the 39th president, who died on December 29 at the age of 100, will now be taken to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where a private ceremony will be held. There, the late president will be buried alongside Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years.

All five living presidents — Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton — were in attendance. Obama and Trump even had a lengthy chat and shared a laugh.

Biden, a friend of Carter’s, delivered a eulogy at the service at the Washington National Cathedral.

“Jimmy Carter’s friendship taught me, and through his life, taught me strength of character is more than title or the power we hold,” Biden said. “To young people, to anyone in search of meaning and purpose: study the power of Jimmy Carter’s example. I miss him, but I take solace in knowing that he and his beloved Rosalynn are reunited again.”

Thursday’s funeral marked the final tribute to the longest-living president as the six-day proceedings come to an end. Funeral services and ceremonies have taken place at the U.S. Capitol, the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, and in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

Key Points

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[8 January 2025 14:00 · Eddie Pells]

Carter reflected on 1980 Olympic boycott: ‘A bad decision’

It was a decision that robbed hundreds of athletes of their once-in-a-lifetime chance at Olympic glory, and for more than four decades, it weighed heavily on the man who made it — Jimmy Carter.

Carter’s passing Sunday has unearthed memories from his 1977-1981 presidency. Somewhere between his greatest foreign-policy success (the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt) and his greatest failure (the Iran hostage crisis) sits the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

It was Carter who called for that boycott — a Cold War power play intended to express America’s disdain for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In his 1980 State of the Union Address, Carter said the invasion “could pose the most serious threat to world peace since the second World War.”

[8 January 2025 13:00 · Gustaf Kilander, Amelia Neath]

Who are Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s children?

When Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter entered the White House in 1977, they became the first couple since John F Kennedy to raise their children in the executive mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Over the years, their family continued to grow in size, with nearly two dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren added to the Carter clan.

“We have a big family now. We have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, 38 of us in all,” Carter told CNN in 2015.

“So, we try to hold our family together and just enjoy the family life.”

[8 January 2025 12:00 · Katie Hawkinson]

‘We give money, we don’t take it’: Where might former president Jimmy Carter’s savings go after he dies?

Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States, was not an extravagant man.

He lived on a property in Plains, Georgia — where he died on December 29 at age 100 — that was worth a fraction of the average U.S. house price, he shopped at budget stores, and he did not fly privately.

The least expensive former president for the U.S. government, Carter and his wife Rosalynn — who died in 2023 — lived a surprisingly average life after his term ended in 1981.

While the Carters lived a public life, they were nothing if not generous with their money.

[8 January 2025 11:00 · Paul Newberry]

Sunday school class with Jimmy Carter: What it was like

It never got old.

No matter how many times one crammed into the modest sanctuary at Maranatha Baptist Church, there was always some wisdom to be gleaned from the measured, Bible-inspired words of Jimmy Carter.

This was another side of the 39th president, a down-to-earth man of steadfast faith who somehow found time to teach Sunday school classes when he wasn’t building homes for the needy, or advocating for fair elections, or helping eradicate awful diseases.

For young and old, straight and gay, believers and nonbelievers, Black and white and brown, Maranatha was a far-off-the-beaten path destination in southwest Georgia where Carter, well into his 90s, stayed connected with his fellow citizens of the world.

[8 January 2025 10:00 · Thalia Beaty]

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter left behind enduring nonprofits as part of their legacy of giving back

President Jimmy Carter ‘s legacy of giving back endures in several nonprofits he and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, supported for the almost 50 years after they left the White House.

In Los Angeles on Monday, members of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles signed wooden two-by-fours that will be used in a new house as a tribute to the former president, who died at age 100 on Dec. 29. In Houston, they are planning to let members of the community sign a door and wall in a new house to remember the thousands of homes the Carters helped build. They will do the same in Tallahassee, Florida, and numerous other communities, in preparation for Carter’s state funeral on Jan. 9.

The tributes to his dedication to providing affordable housing show how the Carters’ work will continue.

[8 January 2025 09:00 · Andrew Buncombe]

Meeting Jimmy Carter — and getting a scoop about Bush, Blair and Iraq from the perfect gentleman

The thing that sticks in my mind — even now — was the welcoming eyes and the warm smile.

He stretched out his hand to offer it in greeting and said something along the measure of: “Thanks for coming down to see us.”

Jimmy Carter — who died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at age 100 — was always known as a gentleman, a farmer from Georgia who had held the most powerful political office in the world. But it did not seem forced, it did not seem an act.

I’d flown to the offices of The Carter Center in Atlanta to interview him about his latest book, The Hornet’s Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War. He’d written plenty of books — he would go on to author more than 30 — but this was his first novel, one that the publisher Simon & Schuster described as “a sweeping novel of the American South and the War of Independence.”

[8 January 2025 08:00 · Graeme Massie, Ariana Baio]

How Jimmy Carter spent his final years building houses for the poor as he continued life of public service

He was the oldest living president and had been out of the White House for more than 35 years, but Jimmy Carter never stopped working to improve the lives of others — much of which included building homes for the needy.

Even well into his 90s, Carter put on a hard hat and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit organization he often partnered with through The Carter Center.

The one-term president — who died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia — worked alongside 103,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,331 homes with Habitat for Humanity for more than 35 years. Often, Carter and his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, volunteered together.

[8 January 2025 07:00 · Ariana Baio]

Jimmy Carter’s life in photos

Jimmy Carter’s life was marked by his devotion to his family, public service and humanitarian efforts.

The former president first emerged into the political scene in the early 1960s and spent the rest of his life working to ensure people in the US and around the world received fair treatment and a better quality of life.

From an early age his desire to make a difference in people’s life was evident.

[8 January 2025 06:00 · PA Reporters]

Longest-lived US president was always happy to speak his mind

Jimmy Carter, the United States’ longest-lived president, was never afraid of speaking his mind.

Forthright and fearless, the Nobel Prize winner took pot-shots at former prime minister Tony Blair and ex-US president George W Bush among others.

His death came after repeated bouts of illness in which images of the increasingly frail former president failed to erase memories of his fierce spirit.

Democrat James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr swept to power in 1977 with his Trust Me campaign helping to beat Republican president Gerald Ford.

[8 January 2025 05:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

The humblest president in history: How Jimmy and Rosalynn returned to their Plains home after the White House

Jimmy Carter once held the highest office in the land — but was just as content in his family home in small town Georgia.

At the age of 56, having lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter returned to Plains, Georgia, the small town where both he and his wife Rosalynn were born in the 1920s.

From the White House, they moved back into the ranch house they built in the city in 1961. That modest home is where Carter peacefully died on Sunday at the age of 100.

At the 2020 census, Plains, which to many is only known for being the birthplace of the Carters, had a population of 573. In 2022, the median household income was $36,138.